Decision-Making, Governance, and the Distribution of Power: Implications for the Student Experience

Abstract

Behind its apparent hierarchical structure, the university is a complex, fragmented organization of semi-autonomous units. Changing it depends on a clear understanding of its history, power dynamics, and processes. Traditions of tenure, shared governance, and academic freedom give faculty unique authority. Professional staff work in a more typical hierarchy in a host of distinct offices. Professional staff providing services directly to students oversee much of their campus life. Atop this decentralized structure, the university president answers to multiple outside constituencies, manages the internal complexity, and often fundraises as well. Theoretical frameworks to understand decision-making in the modern university range from “organized anarchy” to a “loosely coupled federation” to a professional bureaucracy operating through committees, often ad hoc, to address problems. But perhaps the key insight is the politicization of the siloed nature of university operations, which leads to inefficiency, frustration, and in several shameful cases, to abusive treatment of students.